Little Things In Little Boxes

I think it was around 1984 when the Waxing Poetics first formed and immediately started making their mark upon the local scene of my home town area, although I was probably about halfway through high school before I actually started hearing about them. Their first album Hermitage (Emergo) was produced by R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and spawned the first song that I had ever heard from them called "If You Knew Sushi" when I caught the actual video for it on MTV's 120 Minutes back in the summer of 1987. Lucky thing I was taping the show that night! Their second album Manakin Moon (Emergo) produced their biggest single "Baby Jane" which still gets regular rotation on one of our local FM rock stations. Their final album Bedtime Story (Roadrunner) came out around 1989 when I was working at the same record store with the band's lead singer/songwriter David Middleton (far left in photo) and we'd play it in the store while us gals cooed and sighed over Dave's ragged croon. My favorite track on Bedtime Story was "Manakin Moon" (ironically not on the actual Manakin Moon LP) which highlights David's acoustic guitar gently driving his voice along with a quietly powerful momentum.

It's a shame I was initially too young to really experience the Waxing Poetics during their zeitgeist. But I consider myself quite lucky to have caught several of their reunion concerts, possess all 3 of their albums (which are now all out of print), and develop a dear friendship with David Middleton over the years.

Check out the Waxing Poetics tracks below. They are only available for 7 days so get them while ya can!

Baby Jane (from the CD Manakin Moon)
Manakin Moon (from the CD Bedtime Story)

* And let me know if anybody has a hard time downloading these. I didn't get much feedback from the last music file post so I hope they are sending out okay.